The present invention relates to a mistie detector system for detecting the failure of a knotter to tie a knot in a loop of wrapping material extending around a bale of crop material
Knotters are well known in the agricultural machinery art as exemplified by U.S Pat. Nos. 3,416,824 and 4,493,498. These devices are utilized on square balers to encircle a bale of crop material with a loop of flexible wrapping material such as twine, tie a knot in the wrapping material, and then cut it. Several knotters are usually provided for a baler, the number being governed by the size of the bales formed by the baler. In the event of a knotter failure the operator should be notified as quickly as possible so that operation of the baler may be stopped before the bale is ejected. This is particularly true in the case of large balers where the large volume of crop material in a broken bale makes it extremely difficult to manually retie the bale.
To alleviate this problem, one device uses a series of indicator flags to indicate when a knotter mistie occurs. However, this system of flags is such that it does not indicate a knotter mistie if, for example, a tied knot hangs up on the billhook.